If you needed another warning to be careful what you’re posting on Facebook, there’s this: Seven hours after a 17-year-old Australian posted a picture of herself counting a large sum of money belonging to her grandmother, two armed robbers showed up at her house.
In their media release detailing the robbery, the New South Wales police closed with this statement: “The incident has prompted police to remind users of social media to take extreme caution when posting photographs and personal information.”
The problem, hopefully, isn’t your friends, though I wonder if the people who have 500 FB friends really know how trustworthy those “friends” are. Your friends’ friends are an even bigger concern. I have closer to 50, and have friends of friends who are pretty scary.
Making things worse, the default visibility for photos is public. But if your social circle contains (potentially) 500^2 people, the “friends” visibility may be too much–remember, when a friend comments on a photo, other friends see it.
When posting a photo, you have to think of the seediest bunch of cutthroats, villains and scoundrels you have ever seen. Then think of your friends. Some of them are Facebook friends with members of that seedy bunch, and potentially will see that picture.
So you should be careful what you post, because you have to assume that unsavory people will see it, whether you like it or not. Posting a photo of that obnoxious wallpaper that you eradicated from this world this weekend is no big deal, but if you find a cigar box of old gold coins in your attic, Facebook isn’t a good place to talk about it. Or worse yet, post photos of yourself counting it.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
This is right up there with not posting status updates announcing that you’re away from the house; even if you’re just out for dinner, that means several hundred people potentially know you’re not home. I had to insist that my wife only discuss dinner dates and vacations on Facebook after we’d returned from them.
And that’s another outstanding idea. I don’t talk about vacations or business trips until afterward either. Or dinner dates, though that’s not something I’d consciously thought of. Of course, I do have a vicious, dangerous and deadly attack black lab guarding the house, and neighbors who keep a very close eye on things.
Blonde. I think I’ll let my hair grow out and go back to blonde.
Although, honestly, what can you expect from teenage girls? They’ll engage mouth and have voice running for months before they shift brain into gear. Then it takes them a decade or so to get back into sync.
Or, in the words of the great, “What a maroon!”
Of course, she didn’t even live at the home that was invaded – any longer. The counting picture was taken more than a couple of hundred kilometres away. Just her mother father, and brother left. Obviously someone who knew her previously – say from school – passed the word to someone who was prepared to invade with knives and clubs. Rural living has a lot to recommend it, but criminal-free the country ain’t.